After Angelina JolieexitedAlfonso Cuarón‘s 3D sci-fi thriller Gravity, the search for a replacement began. Last week, Latino Review learned that the producers behind the project were “interest[ed] in meeting Rachel Weisz for the role.” However, Deadline found out that Weisz was just one of the many names on the producer’s list of actresses they’ve talked to or screen tested: Sandra Bullock, Natalie Portman, Naomi Watts, Marion Cotillard, Carey Mulligan, Sienna Miller, Abbie Cornish, Rebecca Hall, Olivia Wilde, Scarlett Johansson and Blake Lively.

Now Risky Business has learned that Natalie Portman has been offered the role, as the studio approved the actress without requiring a screen test in the wake of the early Black Swan reviews. According to the report, Portman is expected to read the latest version of the script this week and make her decision shortly.

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Warner Bros has released the first trailer for the Ben Affleck-directed big screen adaptation of the Chuck Hogan novel The Prince of Thieves which is titled The Town. Affleck stars as a career thief who falls in love with the manager of a bank he robbed. I know that might not sound like an interesting concept for a movie, but the trailer presents it as a gripping dramatic thriller.

The film co-stars Jon Hamm, Jeremy Renner, Blake Lively, Pete Postlethwaite, and Chris Cooper. I, like many others, was extremely impressed by Affleck’s directorial debut Gone Baby Gone, and it looks like he may have stepped up his game with his The Town. And you can’t forget that he also won an academy award for co-writing the screenplay for Good Will Hunting. Affleck worked on the screenplay with Peter Craig and Chuck Hogan.

The trailer will be attached to prints of Christopher Nolan’s Inception, which hits theaters on Friday. But you don’t have to wait until then to see it. Watch it now embedded after the jump, and please leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Yesterday it was announced at Cannes that Rebecca Hall (Frost/Nixon) and Dominic West (The Wire) have signed on to star in new supernatural thriller titled The Awakening. Today at the festival I came across a promotional teaser poster for the film, which will begin shooting in June. Check out the full teaser poster now, after the jump.

Madonna is lining up some impressive talent for her sophomore directorial effort. W.E.already featuresVera Farmiga and Abbie Cornish, and has now added Ewan McGregor. The film features parallel narratives. In one, McGregor will play King Edward VIII, who abdicated the throne in 1936 to marry the American woman Wallis Simpson, played by Farmiga. The other storyline features Cornish as a modern woman obsessed with Simpson, and who is having an affair with a yet to be cast man. Madonna wrote the script for W.E. with Alex Keshishian. [Screen Daily]

After the break, more additions to Salvation Boulevard, Everything Must Go and The Fields. Read More »

Trailers are an under-appreciated art form insofar that many times they’re seen as vehicles for showing footage, explaining films away, or showing their hand about what moviegoers can expect. Foreign, domestic, independent, big budget: I celebrate all levels of trailers and hopefully this column will satisfactorily give you a baseline of what beta wave I’m operating on, because what better way to hone your skills as a thoughtful moviegoer than by deconstructing these little pieces of advertising? Some of the best authors will tell you that writing a short story is a lot harder than writing a long one, that you have to weigh every sentence. What better medium to see how this theory plays itself out beyond that than with movie trailers?

Trailers are an under-appreciated art form insofar that many times they’re seen as vehicles for showing footage, explaining films away, or showing their hand about what moviegoers can expect. Foreign, domestic, independent, big budget: I celebrate all levels of trailers and hopefully this column will satisfactorily give you a baseline of what beta wave I’m operating on, because what better way to hone your skills as a thoughtful moviegoer than by deconstructing these little pieces of advertising? Some of the best authors will tell you that writing a short story is a lot harder than writing a long one, that you have to weigh every sentence. What better medium to see how this theory plays itself out beyond that than with movie trailers?

After Gone Baby Gone, which I quite liked, I’m excited for Ben Affleck‘s upcoming follow-up The Town, which starts shooting in Charlestown, MA next month. I’m more excited now that Variety reports Jon Hamm has joined the cast, as has Frost/Nixon‘s Rebecca Hall. The film is an adaptation of Chuck Hogan‘s novel Prince of Thieves. (And yeah, that’s the same Chuck Hogan that co-authored The Strain with Guillermo del Toro.) Affleck stars in the film, and Hamm plays an FBI agent who is his adversary in more ways than one, which I’ll explain after the jump. Read More »